The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners Feb. 27 unanimously approved a 40-year agreement with the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) that will lease the county-owned Memorial Hall and provide renovations to the 105-year-old building.   

A surprise inspection of the private prison owned by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) on Feb. 22 revealed higher levels of violence, inadequate staff, high presence of gang activity, illegal substance use, frequent extortion and theft, according to the report from the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC), Ohio’s nonpartisan prison watchdog.  

Food deserts are a big problem for many of Hamilton County’s impoverished families, but University of Cincinnati professor Michael Widener is heading research that looks into how mobility can alter perceptions about neighborhoods that lack access to healthy foods.  

Babies in Cincinnati don’t get the same chance to celebrate a first birthday as do babies in other areas across the country, and Mayor Mark Mallory has entered Cincinnati into a contest that could change that.    

The Anna Louise Inn and Western & Southern will meet again in court in April to begin the next chapter of the ongoing zoning dispute between the longtime neighbors.    

Gov. John Kasich says he’s cutting everyone’s taxes in his 2014-2015 budget, but an analysis released Feb. 7 found the plan is actually raising taxes for the poor and middle class.   

A new report from the state auditor found Cincinnati Public Schools and Winton Woods City Schools manipulated attendance data for the 2011-2012 school year, but the report seems to lay much of the blame on state policy, not just irresponsible school districts.   

Speaking in front of Ohio school administrators Jan. 31, Gov. John Kasich unveiled a surprisingly progressive-sounding education reform plan that seeks to diminish school funding inequality, but it also expands Ohio’s flawed voucher program.   

Gov. John Kasich’s 2014-15 budget contains a few surprises for progressives — some pleasant, some not — including a proposal to take up the Affordable Care Act’s incentive to expand Medicaid.   

The city on Feb. 1 bypassed another hurdle in the ongoing struggle to make the streetcar a reality when Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr. announced a deal with Duke Energy.   

The city of Cincinnati and a union representing city workers are currently negotiating an out-of-court settlement for a lawsuit involving the city’s pension program.    

 U.S. Rep Steve Chabot is refusing to help the battered Northeast United States with federal disaster relief.  

If the adverse publicity from pleading guilty to a minor crime — say indecent exposure or public intoxication — is likely to cause you mental anguish, pray that you go before a judge like Robert Lyons in Oxford.    

Democrats are calling for the resignation of Ohio State Board of Education President Debe Terhar, who compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in a Facebook post.    

More than 18 years later, Hamilton County’s Fernald Feed Materials Production Center is in the news again. A new study found a correlation between higher rates of cancer mortality and hourly workers, with some evidence of radiation causing intestinal cancer.